


Forever Smiles

by PuellaMidori



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Birthday Presents, F/F, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 21:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuellaMidori/pseuds/PuellaMidori
Summary: Tara buys Willow a disposable camera for her birthday. Hijinks ensue.





	Forever Smiles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fiveainley_ohmy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveainley_ohmy/gifts).



> Once again, a gift for the Buffyverse Femslash Secret Santa on Tumblr

Willow opened the bag that Tara had prepared for her, wondering what kind of birthday present required such an early start to the day, especially when neither of them had to be in class. Inside it she found a little disposable camera, and a card outlining Tara’s idea. She wanted them to spend the day together, using the camera to record all the happiness of the day.

“I’ll get the photos developed for you after too. I, uh, saw some cameras you could plug into your computer too, but I don’t really know how those work and they were kind of expensive, but I thought a disposable one would be fun to use just for one day. Maybe it’s silly, I mean, I’m sure you can get pictures with your friends all time but I’ve, uh, never had somebody to take pictures with before so I thought maybe we could-”

Willow silenced her girlfriend’s worries with a quick kiss. “Tara, it’s lovely. It’ll be like a birthday challenge! Writing the story of the day with nothing but pictures. And I already know what beautiful thing I’ll photograph first!” Then, before Tara had a chance to question her motive Willow was already snapping a picture of her. Too late, Tara’s hands flew to cover her face, protests spilling out of her mouth. “No buts,” Willow said softly. “I want to be able to remember this face, just as it is today, forever.”

“Okay, just this once, and only because it’s your birthday,” Tara laughed. “Now how about we put on some nice clothes and see what this town has to offer for photographing, hmm? I can wear that skirt that you like.”

“Mmm, not just yet,” Willow whispered as she snuggled her way into Tara’s arms. A few minutes later she extricated herself again, standing up and stretching. “Okay, now we can get dressed.” After finishing her sentence with a yawn she added, “and maybe we should make the coffee shop our first stop.” 

Coffees were purchased, and photographed for the record. The two girls then headed off, hand in hand, in search of nice places for pictures. Their little town became a new place with this goal in mind, one they’d hardly noticed before. There were scenery shots, building shots, lots of shots with Tara blushing in the foreground. Tara even managed to convince Willow to let her take the camera a couple times, adding some shots of Willow to the film. “You’re too beautiful to be standing behind the camera all day,” she’d say. “Come on. This lighting, that background, it was meant for you.”

Willow tried turning the camera around a few times too, trying to get both of them in a photo together. They always ended up laughing though, knowing there was no way of seeing how the picture turned out before getting it developed but also knowing that it couldn’t have possibly turned out very well. That would be okay though, they’d all still go in the album no matter how blurry or poorly centred. The goal wasn’t to take stunningly professional-looking art pieces. If it had been, Tara wouldn’t have gotten a cheap disposable camera. She probably could have borrowed something nice from the school, if she’d asked the right person. No, the point was to have fun together without worrying about how things would turn out. Not the photos, not even tomorrow. The goal was to spend a day living completely in the moment. The goal was to make new memories. New memories like Willow almost falling in the water trying to photograph a fish under the bridge in the park, or Tara trying and failing to climb a tree in an attempt to give Willow a good action shot. When they stopped for lunch, there were pictures. When they found themselves passing one of the local graveyards, there were even pictures of that. Tara stood outside the gate making funny faces while Willow commented on how different these places always seem in the daylight. Armed with nothing but smiles and a camera between them, the two girls felt like they were conquering the town! It was so good to get a break from everything else that went on in its borders, just for a day.

Willow makes sure to save some film to use after the sun goes down. Not because she thinks her little camera will be any good in the dark, but because Buffy had begged and pleaded with Willow a month earlier, wanting to throw her a birthday party. “Nothing big, I promise! But there’ll be cake, and presents, and music, and all you could ever hope for! This is what best friends do. Pleeeeeease?”

As promised, there was nothing big. There was cake in Buffy’s kitchen, and music in her living room, and nobody else was home. Xander had brought some snacks, completing the foursome for the evening, and it was nice and quiet. The cake was homemade, getting an “A for effort!” as it too was photographed. Tara’s second gift, the one she had wrapped up to bring to the party, came out: a gorgeous scrap-booking album, thick and heavy, full of stickers and trims, ready to be filled with the day. After ooh-ing and aah-ing appropriately, Buffy gets up and grabs the camera from Willow, ignoring her protests. “You’ve been taking pictures all day Will! Now you and Tara, scoot together nice and close for me. See, there! Front page material! You need a picture of the two of you, for your album. No buts! Now smile!” Tara laughed while Willow pouted, and Buffy took the first picture. Willow sighed, realizing she had no way out of this, not even Xander would come to her rescue, and she snuggled up close to Tara, facing the camera with a smile. Buffy took another photo after she was sure she’d found a good angle. Willow thanked Tara for the book with a kiss after she thought Buffy had had her fun, only to hear a soft “click. click.” She turned away from Tara, pouting again. “No fair,” she muttered, while Buffy just grinned and took another picture, then finally returned the camera to its rightful owner.

A few days later found Willow and Tara together with the scrapbook again, after Tara had gotten the film developed. They sat next to each other on the floor, photos spread out around them, pens and glue and glitter all close at hand. They laughed at the photos they’d tried taking together, all of which had predictably failed. This one had only the tops of their heads showing, this on cut off half of Tara’s face, this one could hardly be made out at all with all the blur. They didn’t throw out a single one. They wrote little captions for the photos, stuck on stickers, drew hearts next to each other’s faces in the book. It was a messy affair, with all the glitter. It was beautiful. By the time the two were nearly finished with the book it looked more like an elementary schooler’s craft in some places than it did a university student’s afternoon project. But that was okay, that was what it was all about. Willow took over completely for the final finishing touches though, making sure everything stayed neat and tidy. On the front page of the scrapbook she glued in the picture Buffy had taken of her and Tara together, the good one where they were smiling. She framed it with a delicate lacy trim, added in some hearts and flowers, and captioned it “with love, from Buffy”. Then she turned to the final page of the album and added the two photos of her and Tara kissing, added some glitter, and captioned them “no caption necessary”.

“What about a title?” Tara asked after Willow closed the book on her handiwork.

“Hmm?” 

“See, on the cover here. You need to add a title. What do you think?”

Willow considered it for a minute, thinking of everything that had gone into making this book. “Okay then, how about we call it ‘Forever Smiles’?”


End file.
